Riverside High School (Durham, North Carolina)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Riverside High School is a
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
high school located in
Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...
,
North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
. The principal of Riverside High is Dr. Gloria Woods-Weeks, who joined as principal in 2021. Current members of the school administrative team include Dr. Will Okun, Mr. Kwame Stith, Ms. Jasmine McKoy, and Mrs. Tammy Patterson. The school enrolls students from grades 9–12. The school was founded in 1991 and became one of the seven
Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England **County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham *Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States Durham may also refer to: Places ...
Public High Schools.


History

Riverside High School opened in 1991 (the first class graduated in 1993) and currently enrolls approximately 1,700 students. It is one of seven high schools in the Durham Public School System. The school offers classes on a block schedule on a semester basis, with students taking 4 classes—generally 2 core and 2 elective—each semester. Riverside is an accredited school and is also home to the Durham Public Schools' engineering program, which uses the national Project Lead the Way curriculum. Riverside's sixteen sports teams are part of the PAC-6 Conference, which includes schools in Durham County and the neighboring counties of
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...
and
Person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
. In 2017 the principal, Tonya Williams, proposed a "SMART Lunch" program where there is a single lunch period that is one hour long and students are free to attend certain clubs, replacing the former scheme where students are assigned to one of three lunch slots at different times in the school day. It was enacted in the fall of 2019. In summer 2023 Dr. Gloria Wood-Weeks after much deliberation with her administrative team and staff, rebranded Smart Lunch to become Pirate Block. The rationale of the rebranding is to provide more structure to all students and still allow them to participate in clubs as well as receive tutoring in classes. It features two lunch periods and highlights a different class period each day to allow an opportunity for each student to receive support in that class. During Pirate Block, students report to the featured class for that day. Attendance is taken and students are dismissed for lunch, dismissed to a club they have joined, or they begin with receiving tutoring from their teacher. While half the student body is at lunch the other half is participating in Pirate Block activities. The days are as follows: on Mondays first period is the featured class for Prate Block on Tuesdays and Wednesdays is second period, on Thursdays is third period, and on Fridays is fourth period. Pirate Block was enacted Fall 2023.


Achievements

In 2007, Riverside was ranked as the 834th high school in America by
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
. In 2011, Riverside's Student Newspaper, ''The Pirates' Hook'', was awarded the best student run newspaper in North Carolina.


Athletics

Riverside High School sports teams are known as the Pirates. The school is a member of the
North Carolina High School Athletic Association The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) is the governing organization of high school athletics in North Carolina, United States. The association maintains the official rule books and governs the officiating standards across ...
(NCHSAA).


Wrestling

The Riverside Pirate wrestling team has won a total of seven state championships. They were the 4A dual team state champions in 1995, 2002, 2003 and 2004, and were the 4A tournament team state champions in 1994, 2002 and 2004.


Volleyball

Riverside's girls volleyball program has won two state championships, winning the class 4A title in 1998 and 2001.


Notable alumni

*
Scott Brown Scott Brown may refer to: Sportsmen *Scott Brown (American football), American college football coach of Kentucky State *Scott Brown (baseball) (born 1956), former Major League Baseball pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds *Scott Brown (footballer, born ...
, writer, director, and comedian * Jeffrey Gunter,
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
linebacker * Mary Katharine Ham, journalist, senior writer at
The Federalist ''The Federalist Papers'' is a collection of 85 articles and essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the collective pseudonym "Publius" to promote the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. The col ...
,
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
contributor, and former
Fox News The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
contributor * Chef Henny, rapper *
Megan Hodge Megan Hodge Easy (born October 15, 1988) is an American indoor volleyball player who won a silver medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with the US team and played for Pennsylvania State University's volleyball team. Following college, also played ...
, indoor volleyball silver medalist at the
2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
* Anthony King, writer, director, and comedian *
Jordon Riley Jordon Riley (born May 19, 1998) is an American professional football defensive end for the New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the North Carolina Tar Heels, Garden City Broncbusters, Nebraska Co ...
, NFL defensive end *
Ally Blake Ally Blake is an Australian writer of romance novels. Biography Ally Blake was born in a small town in Outback Queensland, Australia. She graduated from St Peters Lutheran College in Brisbane. She earned her bachelor's degree from the Universi ...
, Broadcast Meteorologist at WMAR-2 NEWS. Former Meteorologist at WKYT-TV *
Weslye Saunders Weslye Saunders (born January 16, 1989) is a former American football tight end. He was signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 2011. He played college football at South Carolina. Professional career Pittsburgh Steelers ...
, NFL tight end *
Dominique Thompson Dominique Damar Thompson (born December 28, 1982) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the William & Mary Tribe. Thompson was signed by t ...
, former American football
wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...
*
Abel Trujillo Abel Nazario Trujillo (born September 18, 1983) is an American mixed martial artist. He last competed in the lightweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Background Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Trujillo attended Rive ...
,
mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting sport based on striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-stylistic contests took place t ...
who competed in the
lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing (sport), rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) boxing weight classes, weight class in the spor ...
division in the
UFC The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is an American mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. The larg ...


References

{{authority control Public high schools in North Carolina Durham Public Schools Schools in Durham County, North Carolina 1991 establishments in North Carolina Educational institutions established in 1991